Slightly Horrified by The Horrors set, w/ The Kills, The Magic Wands @ The Fillmore, 5/19/09

What the fuck was I thinking sandwiching this show into my NIN/JA week!

Seriously, though, I was stoked to be seeing The Horrors, and had these tickets before my NIN/JA tickets. They look like mods with a flair of The Ramones, and sound like The Birthday Party…yum.

Of course I didn’t know that there was another opener- The Magic Wands. The two piece wear sunglasses, dress in eighties, and have two stuffed tiger’s heads on poles on stage. I don’t know why. But I actually liked their sound- like Siouxsie with drum machines.

The Horrors take the stage after their luche libre mask wearing stagehand sets everything up. They exude a kind of unpredictable danger- the kind HRC finds very intoxicating. My beef is….the second album sounds nothing like the first. Which is fine. But they didn’t play any of their first album. And the show wasn’t advertised as a ‘performing Primary Colours in its entirety’ kind of set. If I hadn’t known the first album, I might have loved this Joy Division-esque music. But I, along with several people around me, was miffed.

Does anyone know what was on the piece of paper that Faris put on his stomach halfway through the set? I also saw him open his water bottle, put some in his hand, and drip it on someone….curious.

I think I made it through most of The Kills set. I’d actually heard some not great things about their live sets, so I had avoided them. They were much better than what I’d heard….I only left early because I was starting to hallucinate due to lack of sleep and eat. Oh, and the fucking hipster crowd was getting on my last nerve.

Their performance is pretty sex. For two people they make good use of the stage, going to the side speakers often. There’s just something about it that felt a little subdued…but that is most likely a product of comparisons with the other things I’ve seen this week. And the music is a bit light for me.

Did I miss a poster?

OVERALL: 7/10
The Kills performance: 8/10
The Horrors performance: 7.25/10
The Magic Wands performance: 7/10
venue (The Fillmore): 9/10
crowd/scene: 5/10
value ($22.50/ticket): 8.5/10
memorable: 6/10